 |
 Online
Shopping Simplified
By Tash Hughes
When someone mentioned the concept of supermarkets, many people
threw up their arms in disgust and swore they’d never take
over from the general store.
More people threw up their arms when petrol station first introduced
self service, too.
Then scanning bar codes instead of manually entering prices into
a cash register stirred up some feathers.
The largest change to shopping in recent times has been the introduction
of online shopping options. This is a big step for many people to
take, for a number of reasons.
A certain amount of familiarity with computers and the Internet
is required to be able to shop online. However, it is not a large
amount of technical knowledge that is necessary and much of it can
be learned quickly with a bit of trial and error. Knowing how to
enter an internet browser and then key in a url is really the basis
of all online activity.
The following list of points can be used to assess any given online
retailer before choosing to order goods or give over any information.
Recommendations
Obviously, an unknown site has to be judged on its apparent merits.
However, if you can go to a retailer with a recommendation from
a friend or other trusted source, you can already have some confidence
in the site’s credibility.
Links from a trusted site can also be counted as a recommendation
– reputable sites do not want to be associated with disreputable
business practices.
If you use a site from a recommendation and receive any problems,
make sure you pass this back to whoever recommended to you so they
can change their approach in future.
Contact Details
A site that has nothing to hide will always include the means by
which you can directly contact them. Each site should, as a minimum,
provide you with an email address and phone number; many sites also
provide a postal address and fax number as alternative means of
contact.
Security of Information
There are different types of security processes available to internet
sites.
Before providing information to a site, be it a retailer or otherwise,
it is wise to check their privacy policy. In simple terms, the policy
will state how they will use your information; the main clause in
web policies is the confidentiality of your email address and other
details.
Unless you like to receive many unsolicited emails, don’t
give your email address unless their policy protects it from distribution.
When purchasing online, there are methods of protecting your financial
details as well.
v Never send credit card details via email as this
is not secure.
v Don’t send card details if the site is
not clearly secure
v Request postal or fax contact details for forwarding
card details
v Use outside parties such as paymate or clickbank
v Request their account details and do a direct
deposit via net banking
Stated guarantees and provisions
Check what guarantees and refund policies the retailer offers.
Due to the nature of buying without seeing, many online retailers
have full refund policies within certain time frames. Of course,
normal standards apply – the product must be as it was and
certain products can’t be returned for health and hygiene
reasons.
Check also on back order and ‘lost in the mail’ policies.
Particularly for more expensive items or orders, it may be worth
enquiring about insurance for the order as well – some sites
include or offer this with every order.
Openness and Clarity of costs
It is to be expected that ordering of products online will incur
a delivery charge.
Some points on costs are:
v Do they use regular mail or a courier?
v Does the package need to be signed for?
v Are packaging costs based on a sliding scale,
weight or a set cost per order?
v Are such costs clearly listed and easily found?
v Be aware of extra costs – special delivery
costs may only apply in certain circumstances
Ease of navigation
Generally speaking, a site that is easy to navigate and find information
from is interested in providing customer service. They present their
stock and their policies openly to give the purchaser a fair representation
of the business.
Consider the difference between a clean, well-set out friendly shop
and a dingy, crowded shop. Which would you prefer to buy from? The
same principles and reactions apply to online retailers.
Branding
Although it is not a guarantee by itself, the fact that you easily
recognise the site or product name increases the credibility of
the site you are considering. For instance, in judging between site
X and Coles Online purely by name, you would assume that Coles Online
is a reputable site to use whereas site X is unknown and other factors
would be considered.
Ranking
When you look for a retailer on a search engine such as Google or
yahoo, the top ranked sites will be listed first.
A high ranking site is likely to have been around a bit longer than
other sites and has a certain amount of credibility.
Low ranking sites, however, are not necessarily bad sites in any
way.
This article was written by Tash Hughes from Word
Constructions
'FOR ALL YOUR BUSINESS WRITING NEEDS'. If you require any articles
to feature on your website, please contact Tash via her website
or phone 0428 376 110
|
|
